The Princess and the Peer(63)

Whatever else the other man might have thought to say trailed off, no doubt rendered silent by the sight of Nick’s expression—or what Nick imagined his expression must look like.

She’s gone! he thought incredulously. But where in the blazes would she go? More to the point, why?

Nick couldn’t quite get his thoughts around the notion that Emma had left. He cast his mind back, trying to remember every detail of last night.

She’d come to the library.

They’d talked.

He’d kissed her.

Then he tried—quite futilely as it would happen—to stop matters from proceeding any further between them.

But she’d been as loath to end their embrace as he. She’d wanted him every bit as much as he’d wanted her, of that he had no doubt. And she’d enjoyed herself, eager and enthusiastic to explore that side of her nature in spite of her innocence.

Afterward he’d walked her to her bedchamber door, where they’d shared one last sweet kiss before she’d bid him a sleepy good night and disappeared inside her room.

Had he somehow mistaken her reaction? Had she been upset, after all? When he really considered the matter, she had seemed unusually quiet, refusing toward the last to fully meet his gaze.

At the time, he’d attributed her reaction to the emotional and physical adjustment of having just lost her virginity; it was an experience he assumed any young woman would find eye-opening, particularly a girl as sexually naive as Emma.

He’d thought her worries were allayed, having assured her that they would talk come morning. He’d assumed he’d made his intentions plain as well and that she realized he meant to ask her to be his wife. Was it possible she had mistaken his honorable intentions? That somehow she had misunderstood what had seemed absolutely clear to him?

Is that why she left? he wondered.

The coffee he’d drunk burned uncomfortably beneath his breastbone as he considered the question. Did she believe he’d ruined her, fearing he meant to offer no more than a carte blanche and a place as his mistress? Or was she worried he would offer to do the honorable thing by her, but only out of guilt and not true affection?

Well, he would put paid to such erroneous ideas immediately—at least he would once he located her.

Sweet, foolish girl, he thought. If only she’d waited a few hours more, none of this upset would have been necessary.

Shoving back his chair, he stood up from the table. There was only one likely place she might have gone—to the home of her old teacher and friend. He still remembered the London address and would have no trouble finding the town house again. If he hurried, he could have Emma back here at Lyndhurst House before his aunt even awakened for the day.

He started across the room, ignoring Bell’s watchful gaze, and was halfway across when a maid appeared in the doorway.

“Pardon me, milord,” the girl said, “but I thought I ought to bring ye this.” She held out a letter, the cream vellum neatly folded and set with a red wax seal. His name was printed in refined black script on the front. “I found it in Miss White’s room,” the maid continued. “She left one fer her ladyship as well.”

So, she had left him a note, Nick mused.

Extending his hand, he took the missive, then turned away from the servants and strode across to the window. Bell and the maid slipped almost unnoticed from the room as Nick slit open the letter.

He scanned the contents, his scowl returning as he read. It was a polite letter, pleasant and unassuming, the kind one might pen to a cordial acquaintance; it was certainly not the sort of note a woman would write to the man in whose arms she’d lain naked less than twelve hours earlier. In it Emma thanked him for his kind hospitality and friendship, then went on to bid him good-bye, offering wishes for his continued health and happiness in the future.

Continued health and happiness for my future! he thought with a jolt. What sort of claptrap is this?

Considering the tone of her missive, he could almost imagine she had written the note prior to their impromptu encounter in the library. It was as though she’d planned all along to leave today and had only been waiting for the right moment to break the news.

And quite abruptly, he knew that’s exactly what she’d done.

She had intended to leave him today before she’d ever set foot in the library.

But why now?

Why today, especially when they had made love last night?

Had their intimacy meant nothing to her? Or was there some other motivating factor at work?

Earlier, he thought he’d figured out the reason for her unexpected flight, but now he didn’t know what to believe. Her actions made no sense at all and he could find no rational explanation, think of no circumstances that might have precipitated her unexpected departure.